Party Details: Airplanes are a pretty big deal in my family as my father is a pilot. He has a very strong bond with my son and airplanes are one of their shared passions. Naturally I knew that one day I would host an airplane themed party for him and this year was perfect time. I also expect this theme to be pretty popular next year as the new Disney Pixar Planes movie comes out. So there happens to be an airplane museum located within an executive airport here in Miami that we take my son all the time to. When I found out they rent the museum for special events I knew it would be the perfect location for his 3rd birthday. The place itself is pretty special as it houses beautiful historic planes, as well when you tour the museum you can see gentlemen working and restoring them. The backdrop of planes was enough and the venue didn’t really need any special decorations. So I mainly focused on the food, entertainment and a dessert table.

Paper goods: I wasn’t sure what kind of airplane I would focus on and wanted the party to be different from what I have seen. I greatly appreciate our military and love watching fighter jets fly through the sky during a special sports event or air show, so I made a silhouette of an F-16 and used a trio of them throughout the party from the invitations to the food labels, cupcake toppers etc.. I also needed a background design for the paper goods so I used flight coordinates to give it that authentic feel. For the take home bags I took natural coffee tin bags and made an AV8R label. My sister in law actually asked if they were supposed to be “throw up bags” I laughed as it was clever and I hadn’t thought of that one, but no they weren’t ;). As a party favor I made flight badges for the children and wrote in each of their names and handed them out throughout the party. The kids loved wearing them!

Food: For the appetizers I served what I usually serve at all my parties including chicken “wings”, strawberries and nutella, spanakopita grapes and cheese. For the main course I hired a fabulous caterer and for the adults they served mini lamb sliders topped with feta and tzatziki sauce. As well as sirloin, chorizo, pulled pork and blackened chicken with mango salsa sliders. The kiddies were served chicken wings, mini cheese burgers, gourmet Mac and cheese, chicken apple sausage kabobs and cookies. Delish!

“Sweets Fly Thru”: The colors of the party were Khaki, Black, Grey and Steel blue. So using accents in those colors and dessert stands in black I pulled the look together. Custom cookies, guava cheesecake and key lime pie mini dessert shots, cotton candy(clouds) and mini cupcakes made all the guests pretty happy! I ordered a simple delicious cookie dough cake and decorated it with model fighter jet planes. I also made brownie push pops which were fun to make.

Entertainment: My son loves the Avengers and so I figured the perfect Avenger to tie into the military theme would be Captain America. He did not disappoint and the kids all had such a great time, which to me is the most important part of a kids party. My son was just in awe when he made his grand entrance, priceless! After the show the children also got to have their faces painted and my son of course chose to have his face painted like Spider Man.